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You and I were posting at the same time. I had to laugh outloud when you said you called the Speedway the "stinky cars". Why? I've always always said those stupid things stink and I hate that you have to wait in the blaring sun for most of your wait.

You and I were posting at the same time. I had to laugh outloud when you said you called the Speedway the "stinky cars". Why? I've always always said those stupid things stink and I hate that you have to wait in the blaring sun for most of your wait.

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I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one with that opinion of Stinky Cars.

I've missed a few updates, but wow! I am impressed with how close you get to Dumbo with that early breakfast ressie. I will certainly have to do it in June!

Also, I hate the Stinky Cars, too, and think Disney needs to do something with that queue. This past year I was blessed not to have to do it. Hopefully my luck will continue.

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The whole Dumbo Dash thing went off without a hitch this year! I wish Disney would do something with the whole Stinky Cars ride. I've thought they should retheme it with a Cars theme (like Lightning McQueen). All it would take is a little paint. It would give the ride a whole new life.

We were all hankering for a treat. We were in the Magic Kingdom on a hot sunny day so there was only one choice. We headed over to Adventureland and were soon enjoying this.

A little slice of heaven. Love these things. After our refreshing break we decided to walk over to Frontierland to use the Big Thunder Fastpasses wed picked up that morning. On the way we picked up Jungle Cruise fastpasses for later. Michael started complaining about being hot and tired just as we were walking by the Country Bears. I figured this would be a good place to get a bit of an air conditioned break. So we headed in. This is a funny show. Just so campy you cant help but be amused. John didnt mind it. Michael, however, must not get campy. He wasnt too impressed. Here is a shot from the finale.

No matter what your opinion of the show, it is air conditioned and sometimes that is enough. So after getting cooled off a bit we headed over for another ride on the runaway train. On our way out we walked by the boat for Tom Sawyer Island and John requested we take a trip out there. My relaxed non planner self couldnt think of a single reason why not. So we hopped on the raft and headed over. John usually visits here with DH so he was the expert. He led us around and here are a couple of the photos I took of the tour.

The boys were having a grand time, but it was pretty hot so I didnt think it was too good of an idea to run around outside for too long. So we loaded back up on the boat and headed over to Adventureland to use those Jungle Cruise fastpasses. As we walked by the Flying Carpets we saw the Disney Family in line and said a quick hello. They were having a great day too. Then we walked straight on our exotic boat tour.

Wed been on this ride before, but it must have been a while ago because my boys had no memory of it. Michael especially listened very carefully and seemed quite entranced by the whole thing.

My favorite part is the elephants bathing. So cute.

As you can tell we were having a relaxed, unplanned day at the Magic Kingdom. However, I cant have a day completely spontaneous. (That wouldnt be very DIS board like.) So I did have afternoon plans and it was time. We headed over towards Pirates of the Caribbean. I dug into my backpack and pulled out some new shirts for the boys to change into. Here they are in their change of clothes.

That is right it was time for the Pirates League. Youll have to wait for the next installment, but trust me it is worth waiting for.

You managed to find the one adult that likes the Speedway. I have a great memory on these though. Our first trip to WDW, we were riding these when Wishes started. There was a car about 5 ahead of us, that kept stopping to watch the fireworks, only problem, all of us were watching so every time they stopped, we all bumped each other. I remember seeing a CM standing beside the track and I figured she get on to all of us for bumping...she was too busy watching Wishes herself. I think the ride took more than 30 minutes.

Love the photopass pics with balloons. And the pics of the boys soaked, my DS always gets soaked like that, but complains if he gets wet on Splash.

You're helping me remember all of the things my kids have never done at MK! We've never had Dole Whips. We've never done Country Bears, or Tom Sawyer, or Jungle Cruise! Crazy!
Love the pirate shirts!!!

I love how little boys (and some little girls ) are drawn to water like a magnet! At least it wasn't mud! I'm with you on the Stinky Cars; wouldn't care if I never rode them again.

Dole Whip Float...mmmmm... I happen to like the cheesiness of Country Bears, and the a/c is an added bonus! We've never done Tom Sawyer Island; maybe next time. So cute how intently Michael was listening on Jungle Cruise!

You managed to find the one adult that likes the Speedway. I have a great memory on these though. Our first trip to WDW, we were riding these when Wishes started. There was a car about 5 ahead of us, that kept stopping to watch the fireworks, only problem, all of us were watching so every time they stopped, we all bumped each other. I remember seeing a CM standing beside the track and I figured she get on to all of us for bumping...she was too busy watching Wishes herself. I think the ride took more than 30 minutes.

Love the photopass pics with balloons. And the pics of the boys soaked, my DS always gets soaked like that, but complains if he gets wet on Splash.

You're helping me remember all of the things my kids have never done at MK! We've never had Dole Whips. We've never done Country Bears, or Tom Sawyer, or Jungle Cruise! Crazy!
Love the pirate shirts!!!

Amanda

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That is one of the great things about the MK. There are so many "minor" things to do that you can do different things every trip. I feel like Epcot is that way too. Love those two parks!

I love how little boys (and some little girls ) are drawn to water like a magnet! At least it wasn't mud! I'm with you on the Stinky Cars; wouldn't care if I never rode them again.

Dole Whip Float...mmmmm... I happen to like the cheesiness of Country Bears, and the a/c is an added bonus! We've never done Tom Sawyer Island; maybe next time. So cute how intently Michael was listening on Jungle Cruise!

I can't remember--was Pirates League a surprise for the boys?

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At least Florida is hot enough that getting wet isn't a problem at all. I don't think they will want to get as wet in January I like the cheesiness of Country Bears too. It's not something we do every trip, but it always leaves me chuckling when we do get in there. The boys knew about Pirate's League. I'm not very good at secrets so I don't even try to plan suprises. It would just drive me crazy

Great updates! I definitely agree about the stinky cars! (love the name by the way and it's so true!) Luckily, I have been able to distract the boys while walking by and we haven't rode our last couple trips. Thankfully, Mad Tea Party is near by and that works great as a distraction!

Love the photopass pics! You always get such cute photopass pictures!

I still haven't tried a Dole Whip. And...it was on my list of things to try on our last trip. I keep saying it...but I'm definitely going to try one on our next trip!

I'm baaacckk And looks like I am JUST in time for the Pirates League! I can not wait to hear about your experience! I see that they added a Knights package at BBB...debating which one my 3 year old would like best Great updates---the kids look like they are having a blast (and so does their Mommy)!

Great updates! I definitely agree about the stinky cars! (love the name by the way and it's so true!) Luckily, I have been able to distract the boys while walking by and we haven't rode our last couple trips. Thankfully, Mad Tea Party is near by and that works great as a distraction!

Love the photopass pics! You always get such cute photopass pictures!

I still haven't tried a Dole Whip. And...it was on my list of things to try on our last trip. I keep saying it...but I'm definitely going to try one on our next trip!

It feels like a consensus about Stinky Cars (though we do have one dissenter.) We really do seem to have great luck with photopass pictures. Of course that could be because we take so many we are bound to come up with some good ones You need to try a Dole Whip! No MK day is complete without one!

I'm baaacckk And looks like I am JUST in time for the Pirates League! I can not wait to hear about your experience! I see that they added a Knights package at BBB...debating which one my 3 year old would like best Great updates---the kids look like they are having a blast (and so does their Mommy)!

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Welcome back! I get that life can get in the way of DISing. The Pirates's League update is next and you'll probably figure this out after you read it, but I would recommend Pirate's League over the Knight's Package.

I love how you just pulled out those cool pirate shirts from your bag! Were they a suprise for the kids? Looking forward to hearing about your pirate adventure!

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The boys knew about the shirts. I bought them on clearance for around $7. I didn't want to pay the Disney prices for the costumes. Plus these were perfect for the heat. They just wore their shorts and the the shirts were light enough they didn't get heatstroke.

We headed into the Pirate’s League where we were immediately greeted by a pirate who explained we needed to find out our pirate names. Michael was up first. He spun the pirate wheel.

This gave him the combination needed to unlock his pirate name. Michael was now Solomon Raidrage. John was up next.

His name was revealed to be Nate Stormwater. I was last. That is right. Since there were no grown ups around there was no one to stop me from being a pirate. John (or should I say Nate) took a picture, but it didn’t turn out too well. My pirate name is Amelia Burnsteel. So after receiving our pirate identity we headed in to get our proper pirate makeovers. Nate was ready.

One of the first things they did was give us a proper tattoo (look at Solomon’s hand.)

That is all the pictures I got of the boys in their chairs because I needed my makeover as well. My pirate dropped out of character a bit and mostly talked about growing up in a town about 20 minutes from us. That was alright though. He mistakenly thought I was a grown up. The most amusing part of the makeover to me was when this 20 something kid was painting my nails. Poor guy. Definitely not a lot of manicure experience. I was so tempted to just take the polish from him and do it myself. But I wasn’t looking for a good manicure. (Would have gone to the Grand Floridian for that.) Anyway eventually we were all done. We all had to take the pirate oath and were then proclaimed to be part of Captain Jack Sparrow’s crew. Here is Solomon.

A little bit scary huh? The picture I took of Nate right after didn’t turn out. Now it was time to receive our swords. Here is our pirate mentor giving them to the boys with some instructions on how to be pirates.

Note that Nate (aka John) isn’t wearing his bandana. Even pirates can still have cool hair. So our pirate mentor told me I must put the camera away because we were being escorted somewhere very secret that no pirate could reveal. So I will be a good pirate and not reveal what happened. I will, however, show you a few pictures (I didn’t take them so this isn’t cheating.)

I love the looks of both my pirate boys. They are very indicative of the way my boys view the world. Michael takes things quite seriously. If he is a pirate, he is going all the way. John, on the other hand, is a bit goofy. And he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. So hard as he tried he really couldn’t pull off the role of a pirate. Even if he’s trying to look mean you can tell he really isn’t. Of course I know you are all dying to see what Amelia Burnsteel looks like. So here I am in all my glory.

Here is the whole rowdy crew

Here is a picture of one of the folders they gave us.

And here is a copy of the oath.

Here is a shot of some of the treasure we left with

Our induction was over and we were escorted out of the secret room (which conveniently exited right by the cash register.) After giving up a bit of bounty we headed out where I took this shot to document the afternoon.

So what did we think? We loved it! So much fun for both the boys and I. I highly recommend it. We did Bippity Boppity Boutique with Wendy a few years ago and enjoyed that at the time. I think this is more fun, however. Just a fun atmosphere and great results. We received so much attention in the parks afterward. In fact by the end of the night the boys were a bit tired of everyone growling at us. Anyway, I would recommend this to anyone young at heart.